Manchalivin

I did it with the slash at the end originally and again in this post and it still doesn't work for me.

Does Matthew do a little falsetto thing in Letters in Wartime or is it someone else or not a person at all?

Like ? Because it doesn't work for me.

Can't you embed Youtube videos on this forum?

Right now I gotta say, sorry Matthew Good, you're not number 1 for me. That position goes to a duo I stumbled upon by hearing a song they did for the Hunger Games soundtrack and was really grabbed by their recently released self-titled album. They have a nice, sort of unique sound and their voices (man and woman) blend beautifully, as does the music. They are different from my usual musical choice, they are a folk/country/rock blend. But mostly folk. Their new album is very emotional in spots. So my album of the year right now is The Civil Wars - The Civil Wars. I highly recommend you check them out, I think there's some here who would enjoy them. Here's a song from their debut: From the new album: Other top albums are Palms - Palms and Matthew Good - Arrows of Desire.

This is one that I would have liked to be on LOES. Really like the instrumentation and vocals on this one.

This is great. I like the way the bass sounds live. He almost had an entire album live show, cool that he's playing almost all the songs. Thanks Matthew.

What I wonder is is the more noticeable vibrato in recent years intentional? I agree, I miss those longer notes from older records, but I think this album has some passion in the vocals in parts that are a bit reminiscent of older albums.

Totally agreed. It was nice to hear this album without hearing any demos beforehand.

Nope. Apparently even Matt didn't know what he talked about. Lol. "TEDx was fun – interesting – and fun. To be honest, I don’t think I made a damn shred of sense. Not surprisingly, afterwards I spent more time than my talk speaking with Darrell Bricker of Ipsos and felt vastly more comfortable. Mine’s a strange existence."

I didn't think that interview was awkward. Maybe they don't have the whole thing up. I'm surprised they even interviewed him though. It seems they're mostly only into his old hits on that station, throwing in a new one very occasionally.

I want to clarify, I'm not saying I think Letters in Wartime is better than Non Populus. Actually I think Non Populus is the better song. The subtleties, lyrics, epic guitar soloing and spectacular ending stand out over Letters. Not to downgrade Letters of course. I just think I haven't been feeling LOES much in general for the last few listens. But I listened to LOES twice tonight and I was appreciating it more again. NP is a great song, and the album is really good and it's great for being different.

I found what he wrote on his site about being on Tedx humourous, and kinda odd: "TEDx was fun – interesting – and fun. To be honest, I don’t think I made a damn shred of sense. Not surprisingly, afterwards I spent more time than my talk speaking with Darrell Bricker of Ipsos and felt vastly more comfortable. Mine’s a strange existence."

I don't feel the album lacks an epic song. I think Letters In Wartime is enough of an epic song and is a distinct song to close the album nicely. I think it has one of my favourite choruses on the album. I'm happy with the lack of epic songs in general because this is meant to be a more straight up rock album and some of the things I love most about MG are sprinkled all over this album and even poured on in parts. I've had the slow down piano/keys part of Letters in my head a bit, I love it, and it's way better in my opinion than the slow down acoustic part of Non Populus. It's amazing how much simple keys and effects can add to a part. And of course Matt's voice and style. Via Dolorosa has been in my head quite a lot. This album probably has the best ordering of songs of any of his albums. He really refined his songwriting craft with this one.

That album that Gil was producing when Matt wanted him just so happens to be my favourite album of all time. Gil would be a great producer for Matt I'm sure, especially an album like Arrows.

Even though GoK isn't very diverse vocally, it maintains a certain intensity and edge that makes it work for that song. It reminds me of Battle Axe by Deftones in the sense that the vocals aren't very aggressive or varying for 5+ minutes, yet the song feels pretty heavy and powerful. It also reminds me of The Fall of Man a bit and the darker vibe of Beautiful Midnight. HHH is very good, there's some nice melody bits and parts of it are very catchy and enjoyable. I think I might agree about the "whole nights", etc. etc. part.

That's really lame. Raine's falsetto was a big thing that made them unique. They went way down after Spiritual Machines.

Ok, this album rocks! In more ways than one. It is hitting me harder the more I listen and is bringing back some feelings I haven't felt in a way since I first became a fan of Matthew Good. It's got the harder elements but there's also some subtle haunting moments that were a big part of what I liked so much about him in the first place. Don't get me wrong, there's been haunting moments throughout his career but there is some reminiscence of days gone by here in parts. This is MG's most immediate album I think and it's just what the doctor ordered at this point. There can be some obvious little comparisons to WLRRR, but overall this is unlike anything Matthew's released. And I love that it sounds natural, it doesn't sound forced. In a way it's really simple, and yet it's not. There's quite a bit of complexity on it. There's plenty of great riffs and little solos and melodies. There's some nice creative flourishes from Anthony that add a lot to it. I can see the comparisons of Letters In Wartime to Change of Season and LotGA. Non Populus is very good but lacks something for me or has too much ho hum and drawn out parts. Letters is just right it seems. I love the slow down in the middle with the piano. Garden of Knives could possibly be the best track after my last listen. It's one of his coolest songs. But I think I'm going to go with Via Dolorosa. It's just a near perfect MG rock song that has it all. I like that the album is shorter but it's not too short. It's concise, the songs are balanced well, it doesn't let up much, but yet there's still enough classic quiet MG moments.

I think I like Tripoli better on the whole. There's a part in the chorus or whatever of Mutineering he repeats too much for me but other than that I am liking it more and more.

I know what you mean about the 2 choruses. I quite like the sound of this song and really like the chorus, but there's a bit too much chorus for my liking.

I can definitely hear the Tripoli in parts of Mutineering. It's really nice to be able to hear that familiar type of vocal and passion again (not just talking about Mutineering). This song is getting better the more I listen. Garden of Knives has a vibe that reminds me quite a bit of Beautiful Midnight which is very cool.

I believe he actually wanted to get Gil Norton to produce Underdogs but he was busy with Foo Fighters.

I'm quite enjoying this album after 2 listens. I think this album is a good combination of all/most of his albums. There's elements and sounds of old and new. I really like that there's more passion in his vocals on this one as opposed to LOES. Also, this is probably the most rocking album of his career which is interesting considering he's 10 albums in now. Had It Coming is better in context of the rest of the album. I think Arrows of Desire or Via Dolorosa would be best bet for a single.

Yeah, one epic song would have been nice Riley but I think Letters in Wartime has the potential to be that for this album. I listened to this album once, but there were two things that made me not be able to hear it properly: my ears are a bit plugged up as I just got a cold (conveniently in time for this album :rolleyes:) and I listened to it while going for a walk. I figured screw it, I really like listening to albums on a walk and I figured this would be a good type of album to walk to. But regardless of those hindrances this album sounds very promising. There's some very intriguing, interesting sounds on it and the guitar sounds cool on this. I love the intro to Garden of Knives, and the guitar and effects on parts of Guns of Carolina is sweet. Clearly need more listens and ears to unplug but I see this at least being a very enjoyable, catchy, solid rock album. Top three: Via Dolorosa Letters in Wartime Garden of Knives

This is a random note: It appears this is the first Matthew Good album to not feature any swearing or specifically, 'f' words. I got the cd earlier today and should have a chance to listen to it tonight. I listened to the title track and it's definitely different to LOES. It gave me some MGB vibes and it was different that there was little to no let-up in the music. There seemed to be a lot of changes in it which I really like but based on one listen of that song it seems this album might take some time to sink in.